The First Unicorn on Earth

by Baileyjrob

July 7, 2015

Dear Journal,

Things aren't going well in here. Well, by that I mean I'm no closer to getting out than yesterday. Martha treats me well for a prisoner. She feeds me pretty well, I suppose. Lots of fruits and vegetables. Simple, yet very delicious. Strangely enough, she's fed me plants I didn't like all that much, or straight up didn't like when I was human. Things like zucchini or avocado. I never liked those things, yet there I was scarfing them down. Especially grain products. When asked how they were so fresh, she said "Sorghum is harvested around this time in Texas." I think that's a grain thing. Not too good with agriculture. Also lots of corn. I asked her why that was, and she kind of just shook her head.

She lets me keep my journal and update it, all that jazz. This brings up a question though: why did she kidnap me? Why is she holding me prisoner here? I did nothing to her. A few ideas come to mind:

1. She wants to use me as a slave. Given that I have magic, I imagine I'd be very desirable as a slave. She hasn't asked me to do anything yet, maybe she wants to assure I won't escape?

2. She wants to give me to someone else, as a slave or otherwise. The least likely of my guesses. I find it hard to believe there is anyone else here. Dallas is a big city, with a population of about six and a half million. Martha marks six survivors, of the purge that is. It's hard to believe that 6.5 million has been reduced to 6, but at the same time I find it hard to believe there's that many at the same time. But I digress, that would require someone else to know of me, and not have made contact. The only thing supporting this is that I find it hard to believe a child pulled all of this stuff off all on her own.

3. She wants to torture me. I think this is unlikely, though that may be the fear talking. She definitely didn't seem too impressed by me in the note she wrote me. Or maybe she was impressed in the worst way. Three things make this seem somewhat unbelievable: One is that I don't think a child is capable of that. That might just be me being naive, but I don't think it's possible. Two is that she's done nothing but treat me well since I got here, for a prisoner. That last fact bears repeating: even if she treats me nicer than she could I'm still a prisoner. The last ties into the previous: if she wanted to torture me than why hasn't she started already?

4. She's keeping me detained. This one is more like a prisoner than the other three. If this is the case, than I'm just a prisoner and nothing more. I did kill someone, and maybe this is her idea of justice. It's certainly possible, and I find this is the most likely one. There are no real problems with this idea, none that I can see anyway. She sure does act like I'm a prisoner anyway.

I imagine that #4 is the correct assumption, but I will remain suspicious of the other three.

That's all for now.

–Leon

---

Dear Journal,

I have been considering whether I should try to escape or not. One would question why I would even consider not trying. Jamie may not have entirely warmed up to me yet (I should say now that I may or may not have fluffed details in my journals occasionally. Not intentionally, I just...) but I still have to look after him. Besides, I have magic. I should be able to easily get out of here, right?

Well... I'm often considered to be smart. My friends would call me a nerd (as a term of endearment. I thought of it as a compliment) and I had some of the best SAT scores. But goddamn if this kid is such a genius it puts me to shame. She's smarter than me and she seems to be twelve! This is of course operating off of the assumption that she has no help. Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing. As a fifteen year old I was as smart, if not smarter, than most adults. She's twelve and smarter than even me. She's the kind that would win tons of awards. If humanity still remained, of course.

Back to my main point though. She's a genius, and I imagine she would plan for my escape. For all I know, she has automatic sentries outside the door, or claymores, or something. I don't want to risk getting myself killed, not yet. That gun modification she seemed to have though. That was definitely interesting. If I can learn exactly what she did, then I could teach other survivors that. Now that I think about it, I don't know if she modified the gun to be held by a hoof, or her hoof to act like a hand. If it's the latter, than that could change everything. If it's the former... well that's still good.

If I'm going to escape, I have to wait for the golden opportunity. I can't rush this. I have to think of everything, and it certainly doesn't help that I don't know the layout of the radio tower. If she only let me out more often, I could map this place. Again, I could use my magic to get out, but I don't want to risk it. That adds something to my theories, actually. I assume that, were my horn damaged, I couldn't use magic. Unless Martha knows more about magic than she's letting on, than I assume she feels the same. Why hasn't she cut off my horn? This adds more plausibility to the slaves idea, less to the torture idea, and prisoner could go either way. She may want to make me a comfortable prisoner, which would obviously make her not cut off a part of me. But it would be much easier to keep me detained without my magic.

I don't know, I suppose I'll find out soon enough.

– Leon

Author's Note:

Well would you look at that? A +1K word chapter that didn't involve a new survivor? (I suppose Martha's new, but you know what I mean.) I'm so proud of myself. Onward to +2K!

It'll be awhile.

Anyway, I did some research on what plants are harvested in Texas around July 7th, and Corn and Sorghum were the ones. So there you go, I did research!

Comments

[Ascent-Express]

Huh, I'd say don't underestimate your opponent, but don't overestimate them either. He may be over thinking things a little bit.